All your MMO & MOBA Needs – Lore Houndhttp://lorehound.com
MMO Game & MOBA Opinions, Videos & ReviewsFri, 09 Dec 2016 02:12:33 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1ESO – Homestead Arriving in February 2017http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LoreHound/~3/1bcEpvrutfw/
http://lorehound.com/news/eso-homestead-arriving-in-february-2017/#respondTue, 06 Dec 2016 21:57:06 +0000http://lorehound.com/?p=44459[...]]]>Who else is excited for housing in the Elder Scrolls? Count me in – and I finally have a date to look forward to. February 2017 will see the advent of player decorated housing in Elder Scrolls Online and I can’t wait. Tamriel just hasn’t seemed like Tamriel without housing – one of the first things I’ve always done in any Elder Scrolls game whenever I make a new character is build/acquire a house for them, and ESO has felt sadly without without it.

There are over 40 different houses to choose between, in all 10 of the available racial styles. Best of all it’s all free to everyone – none of the houses are in DLC zones, and unfurnished versions of the houses are purchased with in-game gold. The only exception are the Imperial style houses, which are locked behind the Imperial DLC like all other Imperial items. A quest grants a small home in a local inn, and larger homes are available for purchase in various zones once certain achievements are unlocked.

There are also over 2000 craftable items to put in your new home, crafted via the already existing crafting skills. Tables, chairs, beds, armoires, bookshelves, barrels, paintings and more will all be craftable and purchasable to place using the new housing editor. Many unique items are also unlocked via the achievement system, and monster themed trophies can be earned in Veteran Trials, Dungeons and Arenas. Pets, mounts and crafting stations can all be placed in your home as well.

And music to my ears after ArcheAge and FFXIV: Housing is instanced. I won’t have to play the race to the land game only to discover it all purchased already!

This is Das Tal’s final Alpha running from now till the 21st. So final they even changed the name. Welcome to ‘The Exiled’. We are launching another Key Give away to go along with this final Alpha. The game is starting to take shape and I currently like what I see. The promise of an open world paired with real time fights all in a Baldur’s Gate-esque atmosphere has me hoping ‘The Exiled’ will deliver on what is promised. So lean back and enjoy the ride.

Here are 5 keys to get you started. We have a wack more so follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for more chances to win and join.

KEYS!
TE9029713845577612

TE9029860166307522

TE9029907656856964

TE9030032187860888

TE9030410867711050

and here are the steps to redeem
1.) Go to http://www.the-exiled.co/download and download the game patcher for your operating system.
2.) Un-zip the patcher to a folder of your choice.
3.) Run the launcher(.exe) to patch the game client.
4.) When done patching click “play”.
5.) Select your screen resolution and details.
6.) Press “Play!” again.
7.) In the login screen click “New Account”.
8.) Pick a user name and password.
9.) Now enter your alpha key (copy & paste works) in the “Registration Key” field.
10.) Back in the login screen click “login”. Your account name and password should be filled in.
11.) Enter your email address (twice).
12.) Click “Send verification mail”.
13.) Go to your email inbox and click the confirmation mail in the email from “Fairytale Distillery team”.
14.) Now go back into the game and you can create your character.

]]>http://lorehound.com/news/the-exiled-das-tal-newer-and-shinier/feed/0http://lorehound.com/news/the-exiled-das-tal-newer-and-shinier/Azerothian Theory 101: Azeroth, the Anchor of Time?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LoreHound/~3/ovpbYUlGv74/
http://lorehound.com/news/azerothian-theory-101-azeroth-the-anchor-of-time/#respondFri, 02 Dec 2016 14:00:42 +0000http://lorehound.com/?p=44442[...]]]>What happens when time screws everything up that we know as lore and a simple retcon, an act Blizzard is so fond of doing, doesn’t necessarily fix the fracture in the story? Not only does it kill the immersion, it sprouts countless and endless thoughts that go through my little head of different beginnings and endings. Who started what? How? Why? Maybe Garrosh did nothing wrong. No, he totally screwed everyone for what he thought was “right”, but it does make you wonder. Join me, as I travel through time and alternate realities. The ultimate Warcraft “What if” scenarios begins here.

Greetings and pleasant morrows, everyone! How have thee been? It’s been a while since I’ve posted so I thought I’d post a quick something to get people thinking. A speculation glimpse in regards to the happenings and such going on within the World of Warcraft. Right now, we, the Heroes of Azeroth, are endlessly battling the infinite numbers of the Legion as they continue to pour into portals beyond our comprehension, but why are they here? Well that question has been answered a million times over and if you’ve been living in a giant Drowish Elven bubble city for hundreds upon thousands of years, then you probably are not aware that the Legion has been sent here, by the command of a fallen Titan known as Sargeras, to capture, kill, or awaken, a sleeping Titan Soul that lays dormant within Azeroth itself, with the ultimate goal of using it against the Void Lords who turn out are even more scary than Sargeras himself. With me so far? Yeah, I lost me too.

Now, that you are aware of whats the hip and happening, I’m going to drop a big old mana bomb on you. That’s right, Ronin died and maybe Vereesa should just totes deal with it already. Also she needs to appear before the Horde to pay for her crimes of attempting to kill a prisoner of war and conspiracy to do so. Okay, beyond the truth that needs to be addressed, you’re probably wondering about the title. What does it mean that Azeroth is the anchor of time? Let’s give a few instances that make this whole unexplainable and complicated matter that Blizzard decided they could tackle, and give you some examples of what and how this ties in.

The earliest we can consider is Draenor, when we look at how time effected us. Draenor is the only planet we’ve been to outside of our own and we’ve been there twice now in two different periods of time. It also has been stated that the Legion does not transcend time, yet they exist across all planes of time, meaning one Kil’jaden, one Sargeras, one Legion. Given this information we can deduce that number one, Blizzard did not think this through or number two that they did they just can’t explain it, but I come baring the ability to do so, and that is by saying that what if Garrosh and Kairoz tried opening a portal to a different time period in Azeroth instead of our own? More appropriately, why didn’t the Dark Portal from the past open up to beginning of the First War like it should have? Garrosh’s whole reason to going back was to stop the Orcs from drinking the blood of Mannoroth, but why did he want to invade Azeroth from the exact time he left instead of altering the past entirely? Did he think, when he first devised the plan, that he was going to go through the Dark Portal with his daddy, take over Azeroth at the time of the first war, and prepare for the Legion’s invasion that he envisioned? If we sit back and think about it more, what would benefit Garrosh going back to his own time anyway? He already had a crushing power that was usurped by a small uprising in his Horde, why would just getting another Horde from another time line be a logical thing if only to throw them at the dagger that almost killed you in the first place?

I went through the invasion of Draenor starting zone one last time to make certain I did not miss anything. Low and behold they mention nothing on what Garrosh was planning on when he opened the Dark Portal again. Its safe to assume after he killed Kairoz however, that he thought if he used the time crystal, he could link it up to Azeroth from before the 1st war without the help of Medivh. What happened however was even though he was in the past, the current Azeroth at the time was what came out of that portal as it severed the link with Outland and rewired it to Draenor. Garrosh was pretty smart about a lot of his planning. He pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes in Cata, at the testing site for the original bomb that led to Theramore’s ultimate doom, which was in Stonetalon, and got away with it claiming he did not order the destruction of the Druid academy there even though secretly we believe he did. Overall we can say that Garrosh was a pretty cunning, yet cainiving, Orc. He wasn’t just some hotheaded warrior, because he did somewhat plan the destruction of Theramore without anyone being wiser to his motives. Does that sound like an Orc who just wants revenge over a force who he thought he had the power to crush with ease when the Heroes banded together?

If all what I’ve speculated is true, then Garrosh meant to change history as we know it, yet he did not consider what would happen when he opened the portal again. Who could? Logically thinking, if you went the past to open a gateway/wormhole if you will, to a world across the cosmos, you would think you would end up in the same time as the alternate past you just made. I think Garrosh meant to invade Azeroth during the 1st war, with a much stronger Horde than before. He banded the Warchieftain together and meant to raise the Alliance and the High Elves and immediately set his attention on Kalimdor and the Night Elves, quite possibly meaning to replenish his forces with the enslavement of the Tauren and the Trolls as well, and no one could stop him. The Kal’dorei would be not any of the wiser, if Garrosh came over on boats with the purpose to eradicate them. He could also stop every event in the process that still lingered having known about what was going to happen up to that point and would not have to deal with the threat of the Lich King or the Burning Crusades.

Unfortunately, there is no evidence to support my theory other than a few what ifs. Final thought, after Garrosh kills Kairoz, the Bronze dragon screams out his final words “Hellscream, without me…. who…” and dies. Now we can take this a few different ways, however if we think of it in the terms of the speculation at hand, Kairoz is asking him who will bring him back to Azeroth. Now I’m willing to bet that Kairoz either A. Manipulated the situation to keep Garrosh as his puppet to do his bidding, knowing full well that the Orc would most likely try to kill him, if he did not offer Garrosh anything in the future that only Kairoz could give him. It was Kairoz’s mistake to mention the time crystal and how it worked and ultimately he lost the role of playing Master right then and there, however I find it very unlikely that Kairoz would tell Garrosh about his intentions for their partnership. Both were planning to use the other until their needs were met, so Kairoz would not tell Garrosh much of anything else. It is suspected that Garrosh believed, when Kairoz told him the crystal could bring them back to Azeroth, that he saw that as just a portal to the now new timeline to the Old Azeroth, and believing that the Dragon himself was the only way they could manipulate time. With Kairoz now dead, Garrosh just assumed he was stuck in that time and I think he was okay with that. He would proceed as planned with Grom leading the Iron Horde and his Azeroth would be conqured.

Perhaps I’m giving Blizzard too much credit however, because as I was writing this did I find something completely without any sense. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS AND WHERE IS ITS POINT OF ORIGIN?

This screenshot was taken in the Blood Thicket in Suramar where it shoots out southbound, toward the city, and where refugees can be seen running to. A friend of mine had said that maybe its the underground railroad of sorts to the Nightfallen underneath Meredil, which would be understandable, except that its on the other side of the map. AND WHERE EXACTLY IS ITS PLACE OF ORIGIN?! THERE ARE LITERALLY ZERO RUINS ABOVE THIS AREA! AND HERE’S THE BEST PART!

It leads to another sewer after a tiny little waterfall. Geographically it makes no sense and the redundancy is beyond measurement. Good night, everyone!

Nintendo has long been criticized by many gamers for being hamfisted in the opening moments of its titles. It’s all in a bid to placate various groups, from parental to accessibility-minded consortiums. For core gamers, you know, you, it is a nuisance. No matter how slick the game designers dress up ‘A does this and B does that’ it can be agonizing to slog through. Pokemon GO broke this mold. Niantic Labs, being a company that licensed the the Pokemon brand for a platform outside Nintendo’s control, did not need to abide by Nintendo’s guidelines. Instead it went the other way.

We were thrown into the wild unknown of Alternate Reality games with little to no guide. Professor Hotpants did his best, but was no match for the variety of mechanics GO brought to the second Pokemania. This is why the Internet was swamped with guides, including our own XP farming and throw guides, to aide those attempting to Catch ‘Em All. I mean, I didn’t realize you had to spin the stupid lollipops for days. It took a conversation in our Slack channel to realize that I’d wasted days of experience in the first week.

Five months removed from Pokemon GO and we’re back into the core franchise with Pokemon Sun and Moon. Prepare to spend the first two hours learning everything you already know about the game you’ve likely played for twenty years. New to the franchise like Shaktaji? It won’t be any less boring.

Blizzard Entertainment did not have had a new game to reveal. In the past that meant BlizzCon simply wouldn’t happen that year. That was then. The new Blizzard Entertainment has no shortage of properties. Properties that the company has built into platforms. The half dozen platforms can now hold down a show with major updates went the thinking and the reactions. Heroes of the Storm had perhaps the best kept secret the returns of two of the biggest characters in World of Warcraft.

The return of Varian Wrynn truly pulled at some all-to-recent sadness. But his slow walk among the Nexus tombstones to confront Ragnaros perked everyone’s interest. Then we found out the Fire Lord would be playable as well. With a hero kit that likened him to the raid boss you would expect. It’s at this point that I began to question whether the designers on Heroes of the Storm held anything sacred anymore. And if I actually care at all.

]]>http://lorehound.com/news/blizzcon-is-anything-sacred-to-heroes-of-the-storm/feed/0http://lorehound.com/news/blizzcon-is-anything-sacred-to-heroes-of-the-storm/MOBA Monday: Let’s Play Dota 2 – ISA-Morderith editionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LoreHound/~3/1C3hj9lO61g/
http://lorehound.com/moba/moba-monday-lets-play-dota-2-isa-morderith-edition/#respondMon, 07 Nov 2016 14:00:05 +0000http://lorehound.com/?p=44423[...]]]>MOBA Mondayis a weekly showcase of how to perform, eh, let’s go with adequately – we hope – in a multiplayer online battle arena. The streaming squad features the hottest, upcoming or most interesting titles of their and the communities fancy for a few rounds of PvP shenanigans inour weekly Twitch channelstaple.

This past weekend, ISA-Morderith and I played video games for 24 hours straight for Extra Life! It was a blast playing the games we love to help raise money for our local children’s hospital. Apparently the 22 straight hours of playing Dota 2 this weekend left ISA-Morderith wanting more so he’s playing on Twitch tonight! ISA-Morderith is officially stealing the stream! He is a better player whose been playing longer but he does have a temper! Flamers be warned!

Jump over to Twitch tomorrow at 7PM to watch him play some Dota 2. I’m sure if you donated to our Extra Life group, he’d be willing to play any hero for you! I hear his Invoker plays are out of his world!

Does the team behind Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft ever stop working? Do they sleep? We’re not asking these questions in jest. We’re serious. We’re a bit worried about them. We’ve been told that sleep deprivation can do weird things to your mind, such as creating tri-class cards and letting players create their own spells. We’re just saying they’ve produced so much content inside a company known for taking it’s sweet time. The team is like that one kid in math class always breaking the curve.

We’re not complaining. We’re eating it up. The deck-building card game keeps it fresh with all this content. The Mean Streets of Gadgetzan may even be one step further, pulling a Harley Quinn on the Warcraft lore. You see, the mean streets are run by three distinct factions each with a unique leader. Leaders that have never existed in the Warcraft lore. Could they be added to World of Warcraft in the future? The dynamics of the factions are interesting so we certainly hope to see them in Legion or beyond!

]]>http://lorehound.com/news/blizzcon-hearthstone-is-like-the-universe-infinite-expansion/feed/15http://lorehound.com/news/blizzcon-hearthstone-is-like-the-universe-infinite-expansion/BlizzCon: Top 5 Revealshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LoreHound/~3/pABWe57HitA/
http://lorehound.com/news/blizzcon-top-5-reveals/#respondFri, 04 Nov 2016 23:33:08 +0000http://lorehound.com/?p=44369[...]]]> There’s never a consensus on the biggest moment during BlizzCon. Probably because there’s simply so much to do, planned and unplanned. Due to the little wrinkle called life why don’t we stick with the biggest moments from the Opening Ceremony. You know, the thing that Blizzard spent months preparing and scripting for. Yeah, let’s do that.

#5 The Necromancer Rises Again
Sure, Frank Pearce announced a bit of a remake for Diablo, the original one. It’ll enable many to experience the twenty year old title for the first time discovering how we got to Diablo III. The reveal of a minor remake was a whimper to his later revelation, the confirmation of a new character class coming to the ranks, Diablo 2’s Necromancer. Fight at the gates of hell with an army made by the demons themselves. Raise the fallen, explode their bodies and shield yourselves with the bones of those too encumbered to escape death’s grasp.

#4 The Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
Listen, there’s few people in this world that have spent more time than I in Gadgetzan. I’ve always enjoyed the Goblin lore, the shady deals they excel in and their ability to play both sides. The Hearthstone team has taken the now port city’s untoward aspects and made it a new wrinkle in the deck-building strategy of the card game. I expect to lose Shaktaji to deck strategy thanks to the new tri-class cards and how they’ll shake up Hearthstone. Again. I’ll distract myself with the lore behind the Gadgetzan factions.

#3 Sombra ARG Comes to an End
The Mexican hacker extraordinaire was the worst kept secret at BlizzCon. This was for good reason, she was the focus of a long-running Alternate Reality Game leading up to today’s official reveal. We all knew it was coming but wow, did we underestimate how it would be revealed. Morhaime sucked us in with a year in review for Overwatch. Moments into the seemingly canned video and it skips a bit, then more aggressively. The crowd begins picking up on what’s happening and we’re pushed right into the animated short that finally, months in the making, brings Sombra to Overwatch.

#2 The Nexus Invites Varian Wrynn and Ragnaros
No one expected the ceremony to go by without a new hero being added to Heroes of the Storm. We’ve expected it every BlizzCon since the days of Blizzard All-Stars. It’s tough to top the tri-hero Lost Vikings or genre-breaking Murky for gameplay changes. Blizzard decided to hit the heartstrings bring – and my body is tingling as I type this – Varian Wrynn to the Nexus in an epic battle with Ragnaros. The trailer had the fallen king walk past the shattered remains foes foreign and known, including Arthas. He took up his weapon and a battle stance, then a defensive stance as Ragnaros, the Fire Lord, rose from the depths. We learned that Varian is the first multi role HotS character, capable of being a tank or DPS depending on the skills you chose. Then we were told that Ragnaros will be playable the month after Varian’s November 15 release!

The announcement of Overwatch League should not be understated. If they can follow through it will change #eSports dramatically. #BlizzCon

#1 Overwatch League to Shake up eSportseSports have never been hotter worldwide, but, regardless of the game, there have been cracks in its meteoric rise. Everything from a get-off-my-lawn ESPN employee (now former), gambling issues to employment agreements have distracted the new arm of video games hurting its credibility. Blizzard is going to do their darndest to coalesce eSports, to give it the sense of rigidity and oversight to bring it beyond just video games and into the mainstream. Ultimately, Blizzard hopes to see Overwatch athletes gain the respect of their professional peers. We can wait for 2017.

What did we miss? Do you think the Deep Mind x StarCraft API should have made the cut? What about new zones for D3 or the millions on the line for eSports? What do you think was the best reveal?

There are few things in gamedom that quite match the anticipation, the build up, the excitement of a BlizzConOpening Ceremony. The other conventions we cover can’t compete because they’re all encompassing. At BlizzCon, a 25,000 strong audience is there for one reason, Blizzard Entertainment. Many game journalist and fans alike weren’t sure what Blizzard was going to announce. What would anchor the show? A new game seemed highly unlikely, but some held out for Diablo IV. Others figured a massive dump of small updates for each universe could carry the show.

What we got was an intriguing mix anchored by the reveal of the Overwatch League. Seriously, if Blizzard can pull that off, a league with the depth of the MLB, NBA, NFL, MLS, etc. it will change the very way eSports is viewed, played and respected. What did the BlizzCon attendees think about this year’s Opening Ceremony? We’ve got that after the cut.

Last year, I was a little out of the loop going into BlizzCon. I admitted it at length. I hadn’t been playing much of anything, I didn’t catch wind of exciting news coming. It didn’t matter, I had a riot of a time. The convention, at me at least, did exactly what Blizzard Entertainment would have wanted it to. It sucked me back into the franchises I had lapsed from. That being all of them. The long play, their dedication to making these universes entertainment platforms continues to work. A year later and my decision to come is continuing to pay the company dividends.

Oh, and Weird Al, Sombra, a new Diablo III class, Hodor DJing, eSports madness, community get togethers, Weird Al, and surprises too many to fathom await us in the next 48 hours. But, details! Here’s the swag unboxing for BlizzCon 2016, the first time the swag has been “one thing.” But let’s not forget Weird Al!